Here at Cycle World, we know full good which the European and North American motorcycle markets have been dramatically different, any carrying singular needs which have been met by delicately comparison indication lineups. But at the EICMA motorcycle uncover in Milan, Italy, we came opposite a new Euro-market Honda middleweight which looks identical to it would be a outrageous strike on the side of the pond—even if it didn’t have tasteful empty headers which conjure up up memories of the classical CB400/4.

It’s called the Honda CB650F, and this exposed streetfighter is powered by a 649cc inline-four, the Japanese company’s third new engine in 3 years. Key pattern facilities of the powerplant embody cylinders canted brazen thirty degrees, a 16-valve DOHC cylinder conduct with approach cam actuation, PGM-FI fuel injection (working with 32mm stifle bodies), and joining rods optimized in length to minimize side forces on the pistons, which have uneven skirts to serve revoke friction. What’s more, respirating holes in the crankcase walls in between the journals revoke pumping waste as rpm rises.

Honda says the oversquare engine, with a 67.0mm gimlet and a 46.0mm stroke, is tuned for good hanging ornament next 4,000 rpm and good midrange roll-on stifle response. Yet the CB650F engine can additionally rev, with a claimed 86 hp nearing at 11,000 rpm and a rise hanging ornament worth of 46 foot-pounds reached at 8,000. And interjection to inner H2O channeling from conduct to cylinders, the series of hoses has been reduced, giving this Honda engine a clean, uncluttered coming which can be appreciated from the rarely manifest mark underneath the bike’s minimal fairing, where the aforementioned headers have been additionally display. Honda, interestingly, placed the oil cooler on the left front and the oil filter on the behind of the engine to assistance house those cold 4-into-2-into-1 pipes, which brush behind to the right and upsurge in to a short underslung scarf which helps with mass centralization.

The CB650F chassis—a twin-spar agreement written to be additional unbending around the headstock and a bit “flexible” down by the spars—has expel focus plates, a 41mm Showa flare and a required aluminum swingarm behaving without delay on a singular shock. Moreover, Honda says the bike—which has identical tiwn 320mm front stop discs and a 240mm rear with customary ABS—has a slim feel, and the high-set handlebars have been written to give riders, generally beginners, glorious certainty and carry out on the bike, which has a claimed quell weight of 454 lb., a hillside of 25.5 degrees and 3.98 inches of trail.

So, do we consider American Honda will import a exposed middleweight streetfighter such as the Euro-market CB650F? Probably not, though we positively idea so. Middleweight bikes typically have glorious power-to-weight ratios, and the new CB650F—whose pattern group purposely enclosed most Honda engineers still in their 20s—would be a good further to the lineup, slotted on top of the contingent of 500 parallel-twins though still good next the distant sportier CBR600RR.

While we conclude Honda’s efforts to get some-more people roving with receptive bikes such as the 500s, the NC700X and the new family of CTXs, we see the European-market CB650F—or at slightest a bike really identical to it—as an additional approach to get ahead which same idea whilst dramatically upping the fun quotient and concurrently celebrating the company’s history. Agree?